The Floating City of Nightvale
by Anicaelis
Summary: Flux pinning: The phenomenon where a superconductor is pinned in space above a magnet. Thats what Carlos and the rest of his team of scientists to work on. Its supposed to be a simple task, but its proving to be more difficult then expected when you throw in motion sickness, Nightvale's cyberpunk neighbouring community and a cute radio host.
1. The Floating City of Nightvale

**The Floating City of Nightvale**

 _Written By Mary Kavanagh (Mimiture), and edited by Isi Ogwu (LittleMisslevesque)_

The high-paced alternative rock music of The Weather sounded through Carlos' ears as he waited for the broadcast to start up again.

Earlier on, no more then 3 hours from this moment, Carlos' boss had decided to send some of the Universities scientists to a rather new establishment by the name of Nightvale. He, being one of those scientists, had decided to see what this place was all about. He opened up a new browser window and begun his search. He didn't even glance down at the keyboard as he plugged in his search, a skill he had learnt during months of long-lasting and boring touch typing lessons during high school. The loading bar zipped across the screen as the results loaded one by one. Carlos leant forward, his lab coat slightly tight around his shoulders and back, and clicked on the first result, the 'Official Homepage for The Floating City of Nightvale'. The page began to load. Images of a town that looked almost fictional popped up around the screen, followed by 'Welcome to Nightvale, the floating paradise!' written in a dark purple scrawl. He decided to investigate more, and clicked on the 'about' button. His eyes skimmed through the description,

"A place like no other… steam-powered machinery… islands held up by air balloons..? I thought all systems like that were shut down…?" He wondered aloud, he raised an eyebrow and smirked, so thats why he had been employed. Remembering the previous conversation with his boss, he recalled something about installing a flux pinning system that would make the island much more stable, but he wasn't yet sure how. "I guess thats why I'm staying there for… how many months again?" he groaned, leaning his face into his palm, assuring himself it wasn't going to be as boring as he thought it was, and continued to pick through the 'Floating City of Nightvale!'. Virtually, of course.

He continued to look around at the website, eventually landing himself on the 'Important Denizens of Nightvale' list. He scrolled through the pages, eyes flickering from description to description. His eyes caught onto the photo of a dark figure, he wasn't sure if it was human or automaton, but the title adjacent to the photo read 'Chief of the Sherif's Secret Police', with no other description or information. Carlos' decided to ignore the eerily odd profile and continue scrolling. Soon enough he reached another interesting profile which read 'Cecil Gershwin Palmer, the Voice of Nightvale'. The was a description, but he didn't read any of it, his eyes had shot straight to the profile picture.

"Is that an eye?" Carlos questioned, attempting to zoom in on the photo. Thanks both to the low quality of the photo and his substandard internet speed, he couldn't seem to work it out. So far all he could work out from the photo was that the man didn't seem to have a real smile, was that even a smile? Maybe he just didn't like smiling, but he was very attractive none the less. He continued to scroll down the list, "Janitor, HR assistant, town nurse…"

Carlos' subtle, online stalking was soon interrupted by one of his fellow team members barging through the doors. His steps were heavy, and seemed rather rushed,

"Sorry! I just need to get one of the…" The scientists voice died out as he began to clumsily flick through the sheets of paper in his clipboard, some of the paper dancing in the air before falling to the ground. "Ah yes! Here it is! T.. the.." The scientists voice trailed off once more as he tried to pronounce the following equipment he needed. Shutting his laptop, Carlos patiently walked over to the scientist and let out a small sigh as he held out his hand.

"Don't worry, I'll deal with it." He said with a small smile. He remembered when he was only beginning too, and he had made the exact same mistakes as the newbie scientists. He turned around and bent to the ground as he began to gather the equipment needed for the trip.

"Thanks!" The younger scientist yelled, turning and running out the door, he seemed excited to leave the labs. Carlos began to collect the equipment needed, a neodymium magnet, some assorted test-tubes and beakers, he began to lay all the equipment out on the table before going to find one of those special bags that they kept around here which held the special equipment in foam. As he did so, the faint crackle of the long forgotten broadcast began to form a voice, and though barely understandable because the radio station was so far away and so high up, he could still make out the words spoken.

 **"A friendly floating community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass all around our little island while we all, pretend, to sleep, Welcome to Night Vale.**

 **Hello listeners, to start things off I've been asked to read this brief notice,** ** _The City Council, would like to inform the populace that a team of scientists will be arriving in Nightvale in a day or so._** **And… that's it, then at the bottom of the note, there is a small dark ink splotch, and the City Council's signature, scrawled and with multiple layers, overlapping. As if signed many times, in the same place, simultaneously.**

 **Old Woman, said that the angels, told her that they were ten feet tall, radiant and one of them was a latino. Isn't that exciting! Let us hope that they do not come with murderous intentions, nor let them bring a variety of flesh eating viruses that take over the body and infect the ones that they do, and do not love into our safe little community. No sir, we don't want that to happen again!**

 **They will be working on the flux pinning project, which is something or other about magnets. I am not too sure Nightvale, I am not sure nightvale, nor will I ever be, for I am not a scientist. And assumed knowledge is arrogance. This also led to Steve Carlsberg attempting to call me, which I declined multiple times before my phone accepted the call anyway.**

 **He began blabber on about how he had the ability to see the magnetic forces, and how he would be a 'valuable' addition to the scientists team if they ever needed any help. To which I replied,** ** _why are you calling me,_**

 ** _?_**

 ** _How can I trust you to take care of my personal information, when you can't even take care of a tan, 1995 Toyota Corolla!? A_** **nd as soon as he took a breath of air and stopped talking, I hung up. What can I say? I thought he had finished the conversation! Plus, I needed to feed Khoshekh! Being a cat owner takes up time you know!**

 **Oh! and it seems that the factory employee that was stuck in the Steam Machine has been removed! Forcibly, and in many pieces. They were happily able to get the fellow worker out of the machine before his whole body was liquidated, his legs, not so much. But that's why we have our mechanical limbs! John Peters, you know, the worker? has decided to return to his previous career of invisible farming. Well, it seems that the sun is now setting, or perhaps rising, or stuck in an infinite flux of both, never-ending or beginning. Either way, it is absolutely, utterly magnificent.**

 **And now, listeners, I take you to the weather.**

The sound of alternative indie music filled the station as the radio host leaned back in his chair, the legs slightly creaking under his weight. He folded his arms behind his back and shut two of his eyes. The third one that was implanted on his forehead was slightly different. It was made from cast bronze metal for the casing and white painted quicksilver for the eyeball, embedded with a simple purple gem as the iris, which was kept at a constant melting point so when it moved, the eyeball flowed like molten metal. Cecil didn't know the exact type of the gem and frankly, he didn't really mind. It worked, and though it didn't look as normal as a real eye, it did its job.

He was not the one who chose it after all, though he did like its design. It allowed him to see the whole of his floating community through other small cameras placed around the floating town. As he focused on the view of his singular mechanic eye, he looked around the town. Majority of the tall buildings were a bronze or gold colour, and if not then they were purple. There were cogs and pipes everywhere that were mostly used as energy generators, but they were occasionally used for others things as well. All of the building were very tall, the only structure that was less then 2 stories was old woman Josie's house, and that was because she nor her angel friends, whom she had all named Erika, could not climb up the many flight of stairs majority of the buildings had. He watched as the inhabitants of Nightvale walked along the limestone pathways, the breeze causing the buildings that were barely supported by the force of propellors to sway gently.

Cecil let out a happy sigh as he once again opened up the rest of his eyes. Slowly getting out of the chair, he took a quick look at his beloved station. There were many cogs and pipes hanging from both the ceilings and the walls, connecting together his equipment and the stations broadcasting tower. He turned once again, quickly grabbing a pre-prepared plate of food for Khoshekh and walked over to the males bathroom.


	2. The Floating Cat of the Male Bathroom

The Floating Cat of the Male Bathroom

 **Written By Mary Kavanagh (Mimiture), and edited by Isi Ogwu (LittleMisslevesque)**

Carlos let out a deep sigh, his foot twitching repetitively as he sat, waiting for his flight number to appear on the 'departing soon' board. He liked this area of the airport, it was quieter, but still busy as ever. The scientist liked to look out the window at the special planes, if you could even call them that, and watch them rush off into the air, sending a booming 'fwoosh' noise all around. He looked over at the two younger scientists in his team that would be accompanying him to Nightvale. They were looking out the clear window with wide, eager eyes, occasionally turning to whisper to one another.

"Private Charter to… Nightvale? Flight DH 3648, boarding now." The speakers declared, followed by the familiar sound of the 'airport jingle', that came without fail after every announcement. Carlos sprang up, grabbing his two black carry on bags and began walking towards the boarding area, followed by the rest of his team. They had yet to make it to the door before, a familiar face stopped them in their tracks.

"Hi!" The girl waved, her mayoral sash swaying with her exaggerated arm movements. She walked towards the group of scientists and extended her hand to Carlos. "You must be the scientists working on the flux pinning project, the names' Dana." Her grip on Carlos' hand was just as strong as her voice. He shook her hand back, as much as he could without breaking his own.

"Nice to meet you, Mayor." Carlos whispered, his voice clearly conveying the amount of pain he was in. The mayor smiled apologetically, releasing his hand, before turning to shake the hands of the other scientists.

"Uh, well, the charter is just this way." she said, waving her hand towards the Boarding Gate. She signalled the scientists to follow her, and loped away. Her steps taking on a smooth and ethereal grace. Carlos could tell that she was slightly anxious, and knew that if he were a mayor coming to get scientists from a whole other country to help stabilise their island, with the risk of it falling and killing everyone inhabiting it, he would be too. She began walking down the boarding hall filled with 'Enjoy your flight!' and other security safety posters. As they reached the end, a poster caught Carlos' eye. It was a rather large one, and had "Join the NVCR team!" Printed in bold caps across the top. Underneath it he saw a bunch of faces that didn't seem to be on the homepage the he had looked at earlier, and Cecil's. He confirmed that in fact, he did have a third eye atop his forehead, which made Carlos even more fascinated with this strange, three-eyed radio host.

"Carlos! We're boarding!" One of his team members shouted, he snapped to attention and walked towards the door of the aircraft, that Dana graciously help open for him. Suddenly, all the anxiety he had had waiting in the departure lounge came back to him. Shakily stepping onto the white and silver aircraft, he tried to calm himself with deep breathing exercises, (which were meant for women giving birth) before sitting down onto one of the plush, cushiony seats. Grabbing the belt on his right and pulling it over his body, he thought about all the things that could go wrong at this exact moment; Engine failure, the airplane losing altitude so quickly by the time he registered he was falling, he already had, feeling so sick he couldn't complete the flight, suddenly feeling homesick in the middle of the flight. The list went on and on, and so did his worries. The anxiety-filled scientists looked up at the mayor of Nightvale, and she too, seemed just as nervous.

"I never really got used to this…" She whispered back with a slight giggle in her voice. Knowing he wasn't the only one on this flight that was nervous made him feel infinitesimally better.

It wasn't long before the aircraft began to move a top speeds. Carlos instantly regretted letting his guard down as his hands flew up to cover his ears. A robotic voice boomed over the noise of the engines, warning about safety precautions and other things, that only served to worry Carlos further. As the aircraft began to move faster Carlos felt his ears suddenly pop, he pushed on them even harder, which really did nothing but cause pain. Suddenly he felt a giant force push him down onto his seat, he swiftly let go of his ears and grab onto the arm seats. The robotic voice began punctual a count down,

"10… 9… 8…"

Carlos began to panic, he felt like his body was trying to rip into two. He was soon dulcified after hearing the golden numbers.

"2… 1… Effective height reached"

The aircraft suddenly slowed down to the speed of a regular plane, giving Carlos and his team a chance to regain their senses. Carlos felt a rush of relief come over him, but it only lasted a fraction of a second as the motion sickness he often suffered from kicked in.

—-

"Okay so do you know what he looks like normally, like, not in a photo?"

"No! But that doesn't matter!"

Maureen sighed amusedly, for the past 2 hours or so Cecil had not stopped talking about the new scientists arriving in town. He was especially interested in one, and how he was all around sublime. Cecil had been gushing about the scientist so much that he had probably forgotten about his extremely vexed intern, who had yet to see a photo, or even learn the name of this mystery empirical love-interest.

"Can you at least tell me his na-"

A sudden knock at the door caused Cecil to quickly jump up and rushed over to a corner, just incase whoever was at the door decided to take a violent path of actions.

A sudden knock sounded at the door, Cecil rushed over the corner hastily, just in case whoever was at the door took violent action. Maureen help her breath as a medley of animalistic noises came from the other side of the door, followed by an envelope slipping underneath the door. The barbaric noises from the other room, were soon tuned out and forgotten as Cecil crept over to the bronze door. Reaching down, he picked up the scarlet letter that had his name printed on it in opulent cursive, and cautiously broke the tenuous red seal, and unfolded the contents. Inside was a very detailed letter, that Maureen had no chance of reading from her position. Before she could even return to her work, Cecil shrieked like Khoshekh after not having been fed for several hours. The intern wasn't even sure if it was out of happiness or fear, but either way she really hoped it wouldn't cost her, her college credit, or life for that matter. She was expecting Cecil to turn around at that moment and begin ranting about how Station Management had done this or that, or that Steve Carlsberg, who was not really not that bad of a guy, had finally been blocked from sending him e-mails, but instead he just stood there with a cheesier cat smile on his face, re-reading the letter again and again in disbelief.

Maureen couldn't help but smile slightly at how immature her boss was at times. Eventually, she gave up waiting for Cecil to tell her about the letter and excused herself to go and feed Khoshekh. All she received was a simple nod, followed by a series of 'mhm's' that probably meant she could leave.

The second that she stepped out of the broadcasting room and shut the door, she heard a massive squeal. Without even thinking, she walked a little bit faster towards the male bathroom. She did not want to deal with any form of monster, or elated Cecil for that matter. She was pretty sure those phrases were synonymous anyway. Reaching into the shared, break room fridge, she dug around for anything she could feed Khoshekh with.

Soon enough, she produced some sort of cat food, or… dog food? She wasn't entirely sure. The letters 'P. E. T' on the side of the can didn't exactly help either. Closing the fridge behind her, she walked into the male bathroom as Khoshekh began to hiss at her. The two did not exactly see eye to deep-holes-in-facial-area-that-are-presumably-eyes, but she **needed** that college credit, and dealing with a stubborn cat was the smallest of hurdles in her way so far.

Surviving, of course being the largest.

She opened up the can and held it slightly in front of her, letting Khoshekh eat what was presumably the leftovers of assorted dead animal caucasus that the glow cloud had dropped.

"Disgusting." She muttered before hearing more screams from down the hall.

'Maureen!" Her boss called, excitement filling his voice. She let out a sigh and placed the can of food down on the metallic sink before opening the door to face the danger that was her childish boss.


	3. The Aircraft: Property of the Floating

Dana let out a deep sigh and gazed out of the small window at the clouds that passed her by, resting her head lightly atop her hand. Unlike 'normal' planes, which to Dana, were not particularly normal, this aircraft did not have any sort of entertainment system, so there was nothing to allay her boredom. As mayor, she did have a large pile of files to organise and work through, but she would much rather just stare out the window and watch the clouds roll past. It wasn't long before Dana decided that staring out the window was as boring as signing off of PTA meeting minutes. All they ever said was

.

She shivered lightly and reached down into her carry-on, digging around for a bit before pulling out a rather outdated looking phone. It looked like some sort of hybrid between a smart phone and a bunch of old cogs. It even had a little spout up the top that resembled the steam factories back in Nightvale, which she found kind of comforting for when she had to make these trips.

Turning it on, she flicked off airplane mode. She always did this on her trips, and it seemed that no-one seemed to notice. It had certainly never had any effect on the plane. She checked her texts, some from her mother, some from the previous mayor (probably about the lack of emergency press conferences), some from Cecil in all caps (meaning either another intern was just killed, or that station management actually had good news for once.) and another one from Josie about her friends, the angels, who most certainly do not exist. She put her phone away and reached back into her bag, grabbing out complaints, comments and everything else she needed to sign off on.

Her mind began to drift as she thought about the scientists that were currently sitting on the plane with her. She didn't quite feel safe letting them into her well established community, but she knew it had to happen if she wanted the floating island to stay floating. She thought about the threats the government had given her, threatening to stop all power to the island and letting Nightvale drop to the ground. Happily, this did lead to Nightvale's partner university sending over scientists to help, although she was very suspicious. She decided that focusing on her work was probably more important then just sitting here worrying.

She turned her attention back to the papers, and began with the first page on the pile,

"More drink fountains for the school…" she whispered, stamping the inked 'approved' stamp across the page. "Steve Carlsberg to be ban-" She pushed that page over to the side, letting out a small chuckle as she did. It seems Cecil was always trying to get him removed from Nightvale. She wasn't sure why, but she wouldn't question it.

Soon enough the repetitive movements and monitors thinking patterns of approving some pages and refusing others had lulled her into a reverie but it was soon broken by the sound of a motion sick scientist who could no longer keep the contents of his stomach on the inside.

Carlos took another gulp of the cool water that Dana had gotten for him. He wasn't sure how many times he had vomited thanks to the gentle sway of the air craft, but however much it did not make him feel better. Dana emerged from behind him and handed him 2 beige coloured pills.

"Here, it'll calm your stomach, this way I won't have to deal with that intolerable stench anymore!" She giggled, as Carlos shakily took accepted the pills. "I recommend taking them now, at least then when we land you wont feel sick!"

"Thanks." he whispered, voice slightly shaky as he swallowed medication. He looked over at his fellow team mates, who didn't seem nearly as anxious nor as scared as he was. They were looking out the window, occasionally pointing at something that had caught their interest, or just anything really. Carlos turned back to face forwards, and tried to ease his stomach to a point in which he could relax again. He tried to remember the names and faces he had seen on the screen so introductions weren't awkward. 'Station management, not exactly sure' He thought to himself 'Dana, well you've already seen and met her. Cecil, he's the one with the very, very scientifically interesting third eye.' and he stopped there. He had trouble remembering names and even more trouble putting them to their matching faces. He didn't have this problem with remembering previous experiments or analysis he conducted, it was just… everything else. He could barely remember to remind himself that he needed to turn off the iron before going to work sometimes, and even right now he wasn't sure if he switched it off before he left.

He decided to put that terrifying thought out of his mind, and think more about the quest that he would have to face. Carlos had been informed that he would not be staying in Nightvale long, only 3 days at maximum, before travelling to its neighbouring town 'Desert Bluffs'. Of course, he would have to make the journey there, which was supposed to last around a week. Even then, he was just visiting the other Floating City to gain permission to use some of their magnets, which could support both them and Nightvale. Of course, then he would travel back to Nightvale and-

Carlos gave up trying to keep track of what was going to happen. Trying to plan a full schedule before he knew any concrete dates was bogus anyway, so he decided to leave it at that. He tried to remember the official homepage of Nightvale he had viewed before coming on the plane. He was sure that there would be some sort of apartment he could lease, not just for his stay. He barely made the trip up to this Floating Town, and he was sure he would not make it back. Then again, he did quite like the look of Nightvale from the photos, it would be good to get a change of scenery for a while anyway.

'After all, change is good, right?' he told himself, feeling the sickness that had built up finally begin to ebb. Carlos let his eyes droop slightly so he could finally rest. He wasn't sure of the last time he had slept, but however long ago it was too soon. Soon enough he drifted off into a quiet nap, and happily had no need to wake up to deal with his motion sickness for the rest of the ride.


End file.
